1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to beverages and liquids, such as cough syrup, sports drinks, and diet supplement drinks, that contain either pharmaceuticals and/or nutraceuticals. More particularly, the present invention relates to systems that administer pharmaceuticals and/or nutraceuticals that are insoluble in water, incompatible with water, reactive to water or sensitive to heat.
2. Prior Art Statement
The prior art is replete with different types of beverages and other liquids that contain pharmaceuticals or nutraceuticals. For example, many over-the-counter pharmaceuticals, such as cough suppressants, fever reducers, sleeping aids, antacids and the like are sold in liquid suspensions or solutions that are consumed by people. Many commercially available beverages contain nutraceuticals, such as vitamins and minerals. Many popular sports drinks and diet supplement drinks are fortified with proteins, carbohydrates, and electrolytes as well as vitamins, minerals and other nutraceuticals.
Pharmaceuticals themselves rarely have a pleasant taste. By mixing pharmaceuticals into liquids, the flavor of the pharmaceuticals can be altered and made more palatable. Liquids are also more readily swallowed by children than are hard pills. Furthermore, by mixing a pharmaceutical with a liquid, the pharmaceutical also becomes easier to administer in weight sensitive dosages than are hard pills. For example, a child of fifty pounds may need to take one teaspoon of a liquid medication. A child of seventy-five pounds may need to take one and a half teaspoons. If hard pills were used, the pills may have to be cut into sections to provide the same controlled dosages.
By adding nutraceuticals to commercial beverages, the nutritional value of those beverages is increased. For example, by adding electrolytes to sports drinks, athletes are provided with replacement electrolytes that are lost while sweating. The athletes are therefore less likely to develop muscle cramping from a deficiency in electrolytes. Diet supplement drinks can be fortified with various vitamins and minerals that may be lacking in people on a low calorie diet. As such, people who are on diets can drink the diet supplement drink to acquire the vitamins and minerals they would otherwise be lacking.
However, many pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals are not readily mixed with liquids for a variety of reasons. First, many pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals are not soluble in water. As such, they are not evenly distributed within a water-based solution. This characteristic is not desirable in either over-the-counter medications or beverages. For example, some calcium salts are not soluble in water. In other cases, the presence of calcium fortification adversely effects the solubility of certain proteins. Second, many pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals react with water, thereby losing their potency over time. Lastly, many beverages and over-the-counter liquid-based medications are pasteurized. Pasteurization is used to prevent bacterial contamination of the beverage or the medication before that product is sealed in a bottle and sold to the public. However, many pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals are adversely effected by the heat used during pasteurization. Consequently, the pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals must be separately sterilized in a low temperature process and mixed with the pre-pasteurized beverage in a separate sterile procedure. This adds greatly to the cost of manufacturing the final consumable product.
A need therefore exists for a system and method of providing a pharmaceutical or nutraceutical with a liquid, without having to mix the pharmaceutical or nutraceutical into the liquid prior to consumption. This need is met by the present invention as described and claimed below.